Turtle Island Native Network invites you to discuss issues related to the legacy of Indian Residential Schools in Canada and Indian Boarding Schools and Mission Schools in the United States. E-Mail us at turtleislandnativenetwork@gmail.com

AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde,"All Canadians need more education about the Indian residential schools and the impact they had on generations of First Nations children and families because we are still dealing with those impacts today. This is why your remarks are so deeply hurtful to our people."

"Senator Beyak's repeated comments defending the Indian Residential School system are a national insult and unacceptable for a member of the Senate of Canada. Her callous dismissal of the horrors of the Residential School experience is unbefitting a member of the Senate..." said Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler. "Her misguided statements, including comparisons of her suffering to those who were forced to attend Residential Schools, are an insult to Survivors and all the children who were lost. This makes a mockery of the Government of Canada's efforts to move toward reconciliation."

Jake Enwright, a spokesperson for interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose, confirmed the decision in a statement late Wednesday."Ms. Ambrose has been clear that Sen. Beyak's views do not reflect the Conservative party's position on residential schools," Enwright said.

March 31, 2017

Senator Lynn BeyakThe Senate of CanadaOTTAWA ON K1A 0A4Senator Beyak:

I am writing to express my serious and sincere concern over your recent and ongoing remarks regarding the Indian residential schools. When your remarks were first reported, my initial reaction was that this was a learning opportunity for you and all Canadians. Reconciliation requires truth, and truth requires education about our shared history.

Your recent comments, however, indicate you are not willing to pursue the necessary education and are standing by your entrenched views. This is deeply disturbing coming from any Canadian but, frankly, shocking coming from a Senator who is a member of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples.

All Canadians need more education about the Indian residential schools and the impact they had on generations of First Nations children and families because we are still dealing with those impacts today. This is why your remarks are so deeply hurtful to our people.

My generation experienced the impacts of the residential schools. So many of our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were torn from loving families and placed in institutions dedicated to teaching them that their beautiful languages and cultures were primitive and inferior, and must be eradicated. That alone would be harm enough, but add to this the rampant physical and sexual abuse in the schools. Add to this the pain, suffering and trauma felt by parents and families who had their young ones ripped away from them for months, years at a time. We know now some of these little children were victims of medical experiments. We know now thousands never came back at all and lay in unmarked graves. I cannot do justice to the full impacts of the Indian residential schools in this letter, but I will ask: how would you feel if your children or grandchildren were taken from you by force and treated this way?

You may have met people who speak positively of their time in the schools but I assure you, as someone who travels this country and visits with our people in hundreds of communities, they are a tiny minority in a vast sea of survivors and those who did not survive.

You lack the knowledge and sensitivities to deal with the issues or people that may come before you. For that reason, we call on you to resign from the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples and use that time away from your duties to embark on a serious and committed process of education and understanding.

I strongly encourage you to meet directly with residential school survivors – hear their stories, ask them questions. I would be pleased to facilitate these meetings and I know they can be conducted in a respectful manner based on the values of sharing, education and reconciliation. Please let me know as soon as possible when we can set-up these meetings and we will work to do so.

In the interim, I am enclosing a copy of A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1879 to 1986 by respected researcher John S. Milloy. It is a heavily researched book that draws on archives, official reports and other sources. It does not rely on anecdotal experience and personal impressions. This book will help you begin to understand the history, intent, impacts and legacy of the Indian residential schools. I encourage you as well to read the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

I urge you to open your heart and mind to reconciliation. I urge you to work to understand the reality of the Indian residential schools. I urge you to talk to survivors. I urge you to make a genuine commitment to learn the truth on behalf of your constituents and all Canadians. And until such time as this work is underway, I urge you to step down from your position on the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples.

Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), Grand Council Treaty #3 (GCT#3) CALL FOR RESIGNATION OF SENATOR LYNN BEYAKTHUNDER BAY, ON: Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler and GrandCouncil Treaty #3 (GCT#3) Ogichidaa Francis Kavanaugh are calling for the resignation ofthe Hon. Lynn Beyak as a member of the Senate of Canada following repeated statements by the Senator in defense of the Indian Residential School system.

“Senator Beyak’s repeated comments defending the Indian Residential School system are anational insult and unacceptable for a member of the Senate of Canada. Her callous dismissal of the horrors of the Residential School experience is unbefitting a member of the Senate, and today we join the growing calls for her immediate resignation,” said NAN Grand ChiefAlvin Fiddler. “Her misguided statements, including comparisons of her suffering to those who were forced to attend Residential Schools, are an insult to Survivors and all the children who were lost. This makes a mockery of the Government of Canada’s efforts to move toward reconciliation.”

During debate on March 7, 2017, the Senator stated that an “abundance of good” has comefrom the Residential School system, and that the schools were “well-intentioned” and“mistakes” should not overshadow “good things” that happened.

Since then, the Senator has rebuked pleas for her to learn more about the horrors ofResidential Schools, claiming to have ‘suffered’ with those who attended the schools, andpurporting ‘shining examples from sea to sea of people who owe their lives to the schools’.

“We find the comments made by Senator Lynn Beyak to be offensive and ignorant of the facts in history that our people still struggle with today. It also comes at the expense of an open dialogue with Canadians and First Nations. We are building partnerships with mainstream Canadians based on inclusion, equitable partnerships and education. This clearly shows a lack of sensitivity by the Senator with respect to the Indian Residential School experience and are requesting that she resign her position immediately,” said GCT#3 Ogichidaa Francis Kavanaugh.

As expressed in the Government of Canada’s historic apology on June 11, 2008, the primaryobjectives of the Indian Residential School system were to remove and isolate children fromthe influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into thedominant culture: to ‘kill the Indian in the child’.

The apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who appointed Senator Beyak in 2013,acknowledged that mistakes were not only made at Residential Schools; the entire system,and the rationale behind it, was a mistake: ‘There is no place in Canada for the attitudes that inspired the Indian Residential Schools system to ever prevail again’.

NAN and GCT#3 are especially dismayed that a member of the Senate hailing fromnorthwestern Ontario, an area spanning NAN and GCT#3 territory with one of the highestconcentrations of Residential Schools in Canada, appears to be oblivious to the devastatinglegacy of these institutions, and the intergeneration effects they continue to have in FirstNation communities.

The Government of Canada has recognized that this policy of assimilation was wrong, hascaused great harm, and has no place in our country. NAN and GCT#3 are deeply saddenedthat a member of the Senate either disagrees with this or cannot accept it.